As the most hyped fight of the year approaches, Betsafe unveiles Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor as its latest ambassador.
The initial endorser deal announcement, on 9 August, was amplified by a basic ‘McGregor Joins Team Betsafe’ video running across the brand’s digital and social platforms.
To ambassador announcement was accompanied, as is often the case with betting brand campaigns, with an odds offer (that the brand claims shows its backing for McGregor ahead of the fight) that sees Betsafe offering odds of 49/1 to all new customers that the Irish star will be victorious in Las Vegas on 26 August.
The fighter/bookie tie-up will run for 18 months and spans Betsafe’s EU territories.
As part of the partnership, Betsafe branding will appear on McGregor’s shorts for the Mayweather fight, while a variety of multiple platform activations are rolling out around the bout with the aim of bring Betsafe customers closer to the UFC star.
Betsafe is using the sponsorship to create exclusive and innovative content from interviews
"I'll be the new king of boxing!"@TheNotoriousMMA & @coachowenroddy discuss #MayweatherMcGregor
Full interview: https://t.co/RpWRoRENqa pic.twitter.com/YOIxwCpM8O
— Betsafe (@Betsafe) August 22, 2017
training footage and pro fighter predictions
"McGregor will knock him out in 35 secs"
"He's the faster guy"Find out what the pros predict for #ConorMcGregor: https://t.co/J6w79hZmVb pic.twitter.com/8FblBksaKS
— Betsafe (@Betsafe) August 23, 2017
(as well as offering customers bespoke betting offers).
For example, one strand of the endorser marketing programme sees fans given the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas to watch the fight in style on board ‘Notorious Airways’.
The UFC star joins Betsafe as an EU Ambassador and together they have created ‘Notorious Airways’ – an exclusive private jet to fly competition winners to the most-talked about fight in history and receive a taste of the McGregor lifestyle.
The imagery and signage on the 32-seat McGregor-pimped jet carried both the names of the fighter and the sponsor and a#49to1 (in reference to the Irishman’s aim of stopping Mayweather’s aim to finish his career unbeaten in 50 fights).
McGregor also fronted to on-board safety vide.
As well as flying competition winners across the Atlantic to the Vegas strip for the fight, other VIP passengers included Betsafe ambassadors Tony Bellew (a boxer) and Jimi Manuwa (a UFc fighter) and promoter Eddie Hearn.
A further phase sees ‘Betsafe Goes 15 Rounds with ‘The Notorious’ with a Q&A style brand video ahead of the fight in which the UFC champ and brand endorser reveals his favourite punch, his first car, his favourite TV show and his first job.
“Today I’m happy to announce that I’m partnering up with Betsafe. It is an honour for me to be an Ambassador for this great brand,’ said McGregor in the PR release promoting the partnership.
“Although real gamblers know the odds are stacked against them, we also know that passion overcomes the odds.”
“We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Conor McGregor. Conor is one of the biggest athletes in the world today, defined by his extreme talent, work ethic and personality, which are values that we reflect every day at Betsafe,’ adds Betsafe managing director Nicola Fitton.
“We firmly believe that passion always overcomes the odds, and there is no sports star in the world today that both inspires and embodies passion as much as Conor. It’s a pleasure to be a part of Team McGregor and we very much look forward to being in his corner over the next 18 months.”
Comment:
While the brand does seem to be working its assets to maximise value in terms of endorser-led content generation, none of the assets have the creative quality, production values (or budgets) of some of the rival McGregor activation running in parallel – such as his Beats By Dre #AboveTheNoise (see case study) and Monster Energy #IAmTheBeast (see case study) campaigns.
There is plenty of big fight commercial clutter to cut through.
But then again, there is a natural product/service synergy between the ambassador, the fight and the bookie.
McGregor joins a Betsafe sport sponsorship roster that already includes Manchester City, Tony Bellew, Jimi Manuwa, Cage Warriors and Saracens.
Betsafe, which offers a wide range of online gambling products (from sports betting and horse racing, to online poker and casino games), is operated by BML Group Ltd and is part of the Swedish-owned Betsson Group (which is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm).
Links:
Betsafe:
https://www.youtube.com/user/betsafecom
https://www.facebook.com/BetsafeOfficial
https://twitter.com/Betsafe
https://instagram.com/Betsafe
https://www.snapchat.com/add/TeamBetsafe
https://www.betsafe.com
